Gas prices take steep fall across Delaware Valley

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- The average price for a gallon of gas is on a downward trend for motorists in the Philadelphia metro area.

According to AAA, the average price for a gallon of regular gas in Philadelphia is $3.24. The numbers get even better for drivers in South Jersey and northern Delaware who on average are paying $2.99 and $2.95, respectively.

The roughly 20% drop in prices models a national trend that has seen the average price for a gallon of fuel steadily fall since July, according to data from GasBuddy.

It was welcomed news to people fueling up at a station in Mount Ephraim with gas prices as low as 2.79 per gallon.

"I think it's wonderful," said Neal Rochford with a big grin on face.

Brionna Fennel stopped to fuel up on her lunch break. She said she hadn't seen gas prices that low in at least a couple of years. So, she said she has to stop and take advantage of the cost savings.

"I saw $2.79, I knew I needed some more gas. I'm like, 'I'm going for it,'" Fennel said. "People like myself, who are on the road every single day for work or whatever else, you want to find gas for a good decent price."

Patrick De Haan, vice president of media relations and communications for GasBuddy, tells Action News a lower demand for travel, a so-far fairly quiet hurricane season and high interest rates are all working to push prices down.

"We haven't seen it this low really since the pandemic," said De Haan. "A lot of that is the function of the federal reserve having slowed down the economy enough to where Americans slowed down consumption."

Rochford, who is a personal driver for a ride service that often transports customers to Philadelphia International Airport, was hoping the downward trend would continue well through the end of the year. He said the savings was a nice break for him.

"This is quite a relief," Rochford said. "With the price of everything being so high, with inflation and everything, it's nice to see gas prices coming down."

Experts seem to believe that drivers' wishes will come true as prices at the pump are expected to continue falling until, possibly, late December.

"As long as there's no unexpected outages at refineries or hurricanes or tensions in the Middle East," said De Haan. "If it's a normal year and we can avoid all three of those then prices do generally tend to decline throughout the fall."